Well, if it is, it ain’t a bad sendoff.

@Background Pony #B1C6  
The only one “made” here is you. Also, Twilight’s Seven episode ironically proved you wrong, showing how bad and useless characters half of M6 are, bringing nothing to plot save for a handful of badly thought, ill fitting traits replacing any actual character. If the Starlight was there, it would actually be interesting episode without plot-pull, deus ex machina ending…

@AJ Aficionado  

 
@TheBrianJ  

 
 
“Sounds of Silence” definitely is a good map episode to end map episodes on, considering how terrible the show has become overall. Well over half of S8 and 9 has been garbage. I’ve been just watching S8 and 9 out of morbid curiosity. Almost half of the episodes in S6 and 7 were crap, and the Movie could’ve been a decent way to end the series.
 
This post is gonna be nine paragraphs after this. But many of them are going to be one or two sentences long.
 
1. It felt like it could’ve been done in Season 6 or so. The “School of Friendship” wasn’t an aspect in the episode. You could pretend it doesn’t exist by getting rid of just like one shot in the episode. It was one of the only good episodes that season.
 
2. This website tends to give off a more establishment “no criticism allowed” Hasdrone-y vibe similar to Equestria Daily, (the actual word “homophobic” is used in the rules on this site and has been since 2015 or so. It’s way too serious for a fandom with lesbo pony antics as a fundamental part) so I’m impressed that you are talking the way you are. It’s why I refuse to have a faves gallery here and also why I only keep ending up on this site because other people link to it so often.
 
3. It’s not just a “seasonal rot” thing nor a “jump the shark” thing, nor just “I don’t like the School”.  
One of the things that has really screwed up the ratio of good-to-bad episodes since S5 ended has been Josh Haber, Michael Vogel, and Nicole Dubuc, with Haber being the first sign.
 
4. Haber’s terrible episode Simple Ways in S4 was the first sign, and then he, Vogel, and Dubuc started getting leadership roles for the writing direction of the show, even tho they are the worst writers by far. “Every Little Thing She Does” where Starlight mind-controls the Mane 5 and is promptly forgiven, and useless fanservice crap episodes with forced memefaces and vague or pointless morals and subject matter tend to be written by these writers, and other newbie writers tend to write crap as well.
 
5. I’ve read that the Hasbro bigwigs mandated the school so that there could be new toys to sell, but I don’t think it was necessary to play up the “diversity” and “everycreature” angle.
 
6. It really should’ve ended at the Movie, and even then, there were so many dud episodes from seasons 4-7 that at least thirteen of them shouldn’t have ever been produced. Season 6 or 7 could’ve been a half-season, if we must have an episode count of either exactly 13 or 26 episodes per season.
 
7. The ancient Pillars have hardly been utilized since Season 7 ended and honestly I could take it or leave it with them. They are more amusing in the comics. When it comes to Nicole Dubuc, she wrote the Season 7 finale as her debut on the show even tho someone else probably could’ve done it better.
 
8. Getting the reveal of Starswirl the Bearded in that two-parter finale (even tho I don’t exactly remember liking the S7 finale and really, Starswirl remaining never depicted in the show would’ve also been good),
 
or maybe just having the goofy Fame and Misfortune “We’re Not Flawless” one-part episode be a casual episode of the entire Mane 6 end the series like how The Best Night Ever (it remains my favorite episode) ended Season 1, that would’ve been fine and dandy.
 
9. And then the Movie (imagine it takes place before the Pillars show up, or just imagine that this story somehow doesn’t involve them. I headcanon that Discord is either unwilling to save the day because he’s an agent of chaos and he doesn’t believe in traditionally getting involved in straightforward good vs. evil conflicts, or that he was in his other dimension the entire duration of the Movie’s events) caps it all off.

Then it ended on a high note I’d say.
 
Anyone else kinda glad the show is ending? The show’s writers are mostly just using the show to push multicultural progressivism and corporate values at this point.

@AspectofBlood21  
That’s why she wasn’t even in Best Gift Ever, and thankfully not in Twilight’s Seven(despite some of her pathetic fans, getting made she left at the school, which is where she belongs)

@Background Pony #B1C6  
??  
Oh, I was referring to Sunset’s band of merry humans. I think Hasbro’s marketing has started calling them the Mane 7.  
I have to agree that Spike is the closest thing to the 7th member of the Mane 6. Starlight seems better when paired with outcasts or “rejects,” like Discord or Maud.

@AspectofBlood21  
Big Jim said Starlight was not the seventh member, it was Spike. Starlight is just a glorified character.

@LaszlVFX  
Yeah!  
Though, sadly, judging by McCarthy’s lead and Boulder’s work on G4 going forward, they are moving away from stuff like the map and onto more…what’s the word? Story based plots?  
Like the mane 6 finding a friendship problem because they are helping Rainbow Dash with an award, or how the Mane 7 are just on a cruise and encounter spooky magic.  
The map was a deus ex machina, but I loved it.

@ZippySqrl  
of course, since it’s a supernatural magical item that is a part of a supernatural being called the Tree of Harmony.  
The Map just detects and analyses friendship issues. And after that it just picks the most suitable characters.

@ZippySqrl  
That’s a funny word for script.

@LaszlVFX  
yes but its a mystery the map magically knows how to fix and who specifically to send, like the map can see the future and knows exactly how and when to activate.  
Map confirmed holder of the time stone

@ZippySqrl  
That’s the point. We don’t know the plot line in advance. That’s what makes it more interesting because it’s a mystery which will conclude later on. If the summoned characters would already know what they are headed into, that would make it too easy and predictable.

@Knackerman  
it was moreso about how it was all like, “only these specific characters can go to this specific location, but i’m not going to give you ANY details on the friendship problem or say why only those characters can go, lol”

@PonyPon  
Fair enough.

@Knackerman  
They both suck.

@ZippySqrl  
No more than The School Of Friendship was a lame plot device to give the Mane 6 new jobs on top of their already existing jobs.
 
Frankly, I prefer the Cutie Map. At least that got characters out of Ponyville and into the wider world of Equestria.

I highly doubt that’ll be the case

The map is a shoehorned plot device to give characters a reason to go somewhere, we’re better off without it.

If it turns out this is true, it’s a great episode for the map to go out on.

We don’t know that yet. And even if it is, then at least it’s a good episode.

How do you know? We still have 14 episodes left.